Saturday, February 7, 2015

Some of you may have seen a phantom version of this appear mid-week, when I accidentally hit "publish" instead of save, and in another, totally unconnected bit of internet weirdness, an old Breakfast Links from January was sent out to subscribers this morning. Clearly Mercury's in retrograde....
Fresh for your weekend enjoyment: our weekly round-up of fav links to other web sites, blogs, images, & articles via twitter.
• Out of the shadows: images of 16th-18thc Black children as servants and slaves, and why American portraits were different.
• Bronte family writing table goes on show at Haworth Parsonage.
• Commonplace books that are far from common.
• "The heat is beyond your conception": Robert Beverley and the 18th c. Virginia climate.
• A genuine Almack's voucher.
• An extremely rare survivor: the Lincoln mantua, c1730.
• The wreck of the SS London in 1866 spotlights Victorian values and behavior in extremis.
• "Female husbands" in the 19th c.
• Raden Saleh Sjarif Boestaman (1811-1880) Javanese aristocrat and painter.
• How Catherine Tylney Long became the "richest commoner in the British Dominions" in 1814.
• The wide variety of 18th c. trade cards.
• The real Artful Dodger, 1818.
• Looking at a 17th c. family portrait with symbolic indications that some of the family members were deceased.
• The duel of Lord Camelford and Captain Best, 1804
• "I give you this, as a token of my love": expression of love from 18th c. transported convicts.
• Sex and the single man in late medieval England.
• Two hundred hours later: the incredible journey of this Dior couture dress.
• Image: "Her smile was as misleading as a detour": The best similes of 1926.
• Count Paolo Ruffo, an Italian officer at Waterloo.
• Magna Carta: modern lasers help reveal clues behind King John's lost treasure.
• Paris wants its unique rooftops to be made Unesco world heritage site.
• Searching for the lost 17th c. Hunt House in Salem, MA.
• When ice was hot: a skater shares his life-long love for razzle-dazzle ice shows.
• Vessel of light: the stunning luminescence of Peterborough Cathedral.
• Image: Following the fleet: herring girls photographed at Great Yarmouth by Donald Shields in 1904.
• "Grewsome relics" of Charles I: 1813, 1845, 1904.
• Dog days: military dogs and mascots.
• Speaking bluntly: the French writer Colette offers advice for how to critique your friends.
• Flipping out over hand-held movies, a century before smartphones.
• The ten most beautiful libraries in America.
• "Beggars: Caution!" An old vagrancy sign.
• Image: Face to face with a very rare (only five are known) Stradivarius guitar c 1688, and this is what it sounds like.
• Thoughtful article on where knitting and other traditional crafts fit into today's fast-fashion world.
• Speech bubbles: the connection between medieval and modern books and media.
• Decade by decade intimate photographs of American soldiers at war.
• Wolf Hall is wrong: Thomas More was a funny, feminist Renaissance man.Hungry for more? Follow us on twitter @2nerdyhistgirls for fresh updates daily.

The writing desk, on which Emily Brontë wrote Wuthering Heights and Charlotte wrote Jane Eyre, was really important. You cannot tell anything about a writer's personal life until you see his/her study, library space and walk all around the desk. I would say the same thing about Dylan Thomas or Dr Samuel Johnson, for example.

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A Polite Explanation

There’s a big difference in how we use history. But we’re equally nuts about it. To us, the everyday details of life in the past are things to talk about, ponder, make fun of -- much in the way normal people talk about their favorite reality show.

We talk about who’s wearing what and who’s sleeping with whom. We try to sort out rumor or myth from fact. We thought there must be at least three other people out there who think history’s fascinating and fun, too. This blog is for them.